The Hon. K.V. Samantha Viddyarathna - Minister of Plantation and Community Infrastructure

¶ 01 Mr. Presiding Member, at the end of this Committee Stage debate on our Ministry’s Head, I must clarify a few points.

¶ 02 Earlier it was stated that the Spices and Allied Products Marketing Board is closing and workers dismissed. That is incorrect. The Board had been heavily politicized. Of 34 outlets, only 17 remained when the new Chairman took over; most of those 17 were in Ratnapura, the former Minister’s district. Now only about four remain because unprofitable shops had to be closed. The institution currently suffers a Rs. 56 million loss. No employee has been terminated; they were asked to report to the head office in Colombo. About 150 staff were recruited without proper approvals from the Management Services Department — politically recruited. Despite this state, we have no intention of closing the institution.

¶ 03 Members also spoke about factory fires and about Batalanda. If factories burn, rebuilding can take decades, while for burnt houses compensation was delayed for months. On Batalanda: that was state terrorism — extra-legal detention camps are not the law. Punishment must be through courts. The report reveals where politicians operated outside the law, and that too needs answers.

¶ 04 Many questions raised this afternoon were already answered earlier. One Member said 10 million coconut seedlings would enable development; but based on our current seed capacity, we cannot reach 10 million; we have only about 2.568 million seed nuts available now.

¶ 05 Order, please.

¶ 06 [Change of Chair noted.]

¶ 07 Mr. Speaker, as I was saying, we must advance coconut cultivation. Given present conditions, plans are in place to supply about 2.568 million quality seed nuts, and we have targeted that. In the past, under political whims, unsuitable seeds were used; in some cases, they planted palms rather than proper seedlings — we have photographs. We will not repeat those mistakes.

¶ 08 We received many constructive proposals today; we will incorporate them into our Ministry’s forward work. I thank Members on both sides for these suggestions.